Avis Cape Town - making a profit from accidents

********** experience with Avis Cape Town. From my experience and in my opinion Avis appears to be making a profit from clients on accidents by charging an excess AND getting payment from the 3rd party responsible for the accident, then keeping both payments even when the cost of repair was LESS than the initial excess paid. In my opinion this sound ******* and **********. Here’s how it works in my case. My hire car was hit by a 3rd party when I was not even in the car so I am not responsible for the accident but I accept that according to the hire contract Avis would charge me an excess of R5000 until such time as the 3rd party paid for the repairs. In this case, the cost of repair (approx. R1557.50) was less than the excess. The 3rd party has accepted full responsibility but disputes the cost of repair and has paid Avis a portion of the cost of repair (R1557.50). Avis has now kept the initial excess I paid AND has kept the amount paid by the 3rd party even though the cost of the repair was less than the excess. Simply put: Excess R5000 + 3rd party payment R1557.50 = R6557.50. Cost of repair R4800 (approx). Avis is refusing to refund me even just the amount that the 3rd party has paid (R1557.50) and therefore Avis has actually made A PROFIT. Avis has said to me that they will not refund me until the 3rd party has paid the FULL cost of the repair and the 3rd party refuses to pay the full amount. So if AVIS gets a partial payment from the 3rd party they keep all of that and the excess. And this has taken over 3 months of dozens of emails to Avis to get this far! They even closed the file before even trying to contact the 3rd party!!! Unbelievable. Never, never, ever will I use AVIS again. I feel totally exploit and ********** while they make a profit out of me.